A paedophile is feared to have abused several more teenage boys after police were denied potential evidence by a tech company, a judge has said.

Judge Mark Horton said that the owners of Kik, an encrypted messaging app, had limited the investigation into Andrew Donovan’s “unmanageable deviant sexual impulse and attitude to children”.

Jailing him for 28 months for sending indecent images to a 14-year-old boy he had groomed, Judge Horton described Kik’s policies as “frustrating”. The app has been used by other child groomers, terrorists and drug gangs.

Donovan, 35, would initiate contact via Facebook before insisting that the conversation move to Kik, Bristol crown court was told. According to the judge, complaints involving two or more children would prompt the company to grant…

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